Business

Business

Turning tradition into a business
By Naomi Gunasekara
Four women sat on wooden benches, surrounded by straw baskets, firewood and clay pots full of honey. The room was dark and humid. Yet they continued frying oil cakes and kokis occasionally wiping beads of sweat on their blouse sleeves. "Most people don't cook traditional sweetmeats because it consumes a lot of time," said Ms. P. K. Dissanayake, skillfully bringing oil onto her final oil cake.

Kavum for all seasons Pix. M. A. Pushpa Kumara

Placing a perfect konda kavuma among the 200-odd kavum she had made, she rested her head on the coal-coated wall behind her. "I can prepare almost all the traditional sweetmeats. But we only make kavum and kokis on a large scale. Other sweetmeats are done when orders are placed," she said. Four women including Dissanayake, cook the 600-800 kavum sold daily at the popular Jinadasa Thalaguli Karmantha Ayathanaya, Warakapola.

Thalaguli mudalali
Started in 1934 by K.G. Jinadasa, the thalaguli mudalali of Warakapola, the business is being run by his wife G. R. Karunawathie today. A household name in Sri Lanka, Jinadasa's thalaguli attracts both the local and foreign traveller who wants a taste of traditional sweetmeats like konda kavum, mung kavum, kokis, aluwa, aggala, helapa and veli thalapa.

Wrapping the famous thalaguli

"Not many of our women can prepare these sweetmeats now and the art of traditional sweetmeat making was dying down when our mudalali started selling kavum and kokis to preserve traditional sweetmeats and introduce them to the younger generation," said Dissanayake, who works at Jinadasa for a daily wage of Rs. 135.

Not only Jinadasa but more and more companies have stepped forward to manufacture traditional sweetmeats on a large scale when the art began to die rapidly with modernisation. Said Dissanayake; "It was an insult to buy these sweets from shops in our youth and I remember how my mother made them for various cultural festivals and special occasions."

Legacy
Traditional sweetmeats that once took pride of place at birthday parties, weddings, funerals, house-warming ceremonies and other cultural celebrations have been replaced with cake and pastries, a legacy of the Portuguese. Attend any birthday party today and you will be served cakes and pastries that can be directly traced to the seafaring Portuguese and not the traditional kokis, mung kavum, aggala, veli thalapa and helapa.

Interestingly, however, now there appears to be a big demand for traditional sweetmeats as more companies are venturing into large-scale sweetmeat manufacturing. According to Dissanayake, there is a steady demand for traditional sweetmeats throughout the year but sales increase during the perahera and avurudhu seasons.

"We do large-scale preparations for weddings. But during avurudhu we produce 1000s of kavum and kokis because the demand is high," said Dissanayake wiping her hands on the sides of her cheeththa.

Though production is done on a large scale, the batter is prepared by using traditional methods.

"A grinder is used to grind the rice but all other work is done manually. You cannot make a perfect konda kavuma on gas without a koora," she said with a smile. "The art involves skill and patience. The modern woman does not have time for all this."

Although she finances her children's education by preparing kavum and kokis at Jinadasa's, she does not want her daughter to do the same, says K.A. Seelawathi, who joined Jinadasa about three years ago. "I used to do odd jobs and work in the paddy fields during harves-ting seasons but the income was not regular. I want to educate my children and give them a better future."

Rural folk
Large-scale sweetmeat producers like Sweet House, Monis and Jinadasa employ women like Dissanayake and Seelawathi, who come from rural areas. "It is difficult to find people to prepare these things because they don't like to spend long hours near the fireplace. When I joined I didn't know how to prepare most of these things but learnt by watching others," said Seelawathi who has learnt the art from an old Kavum amme.

The Sweet House mudalali who hails from down south where avurudhu traditions are strictly adhered to had intended to preserve traditional sweetmeats for the younger generation like Warakapola's thalaguli mud-alali. "He introduced the sweetmeat line in the early 1970s and we sell these products at our three outlets," said Manager Wilson Hapu-arachchi.

He feels that big companies have stepped forward to manufacture traditional swe-etmeats because there is a huge demand for these goods in the market despite the decline of the art of preparing these sweetmeats.

"People no longer make their own kavum and kokis for festivals and celebrations but use them for traditional ceremonies. That kavum and kokis have to come from somewhere."

Traditional methods
Interestingly, however, all large-scale manufacturers of traditional sweetmeats resort to traditional methods of preparation. "We use the heavy pestle to grind our own rice because grinding at the mill affects the batter. It is safe to do things the tradi-tional way because nothing can go wrong."

Sweet House prepares 1,000s of kavum daily but the largest demand is during the avurudhu season. The military places orders running into 100,000s of kavum and kokis to distribute among those who are on duty during the season.

"Historically speaking, there were no places selling traditional sweetmeats until recently because it was considered shameful if one didn't know how to prepare our sweetmeats. But everything changes with time and those who do not know how to prepare sweetmeats buy them now," he added.

The demand for traditional sweetmeats is steady according to Hapuarachchi because Sri Lankans are proud of their traditions.

"Although women prefer to buy the sweetmeats they have not forgotten their importance at weddings, funerals and housewarming ceremonies. So the business community has stepped forward to preserve this dying art by establishing large-scale businesses."

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